The present invention relates to biochips, in particular nucleotide chips, which contain nucleotide sequences coding hyphen-specific proteins, protein chips, which contain hyphen-specific proteins, and antibody chips, which contain antibodies directed against these hyphen-specific proteins, diagnostic compositions which contain these nucleotide, protein, or antibody chips, processes for the location and identification of substances, which are therapeutically effective against diseases caused by types of Candida and processes for the diagnosis of a disease caused by Candida. 
Along with the yeasts of the Saccharomycetaceae family, which have been used commercially, e.g. in the food industry, for a long time, asporogenous yeasts such as, for example, yeasts of the genus Candida, also number among the budding funguses or yeasts. Several members of the genus Candida are able to form mycel aggregates. Others reproduce only by sprouting. Candida albicans is the most frequently isolated human pathogenic fungus. Candida albicans frequently causes opportunistic infections, i.e. infections in immunosuppressed patients by normally relatively unproblematic microbes. Infections of this type take a serious course in these patients and decisively shorten the survival time, for example, of HIV-infected patients or of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Presently, the treatment of systemic infections with Candida albicans is carried out principally by means of azoles or polyenes. However, the treatment by means of these two classes of substances has disadvantages. Polyenes lead to strong side effects while resistance to the azoles is increasingly developing (DiDomenico, 1999, Curr Opin Microbiol 2, 509 to 515, Georgopapadakou, 1998, Curr Opin Microbiol 1, 547 to 557).
Since the clinical findings of fungus infections are predominantly uncharacteristic, forming the exact diagnosis of fungal infections, in particular of Candida infections, is extremely difficult. Where a Candida attack on the skin or the mucus membranes is suspected, for example, surface smears must be taken and examined microscopically. In attacks on internal organs, organ biopsies must be examined histologically in order to detect invasive growth. For the diagnosis of a generalized Candida infection, a specular examination of the ocular fundus is indicated. Furthermore, several blood cultures, which must be taken venously on successive days, must be examined. In case the kidneys are involved the urine must be examined in addition. Microscopic native preparations of this kind permit, however, only the detection of polymorphic fungal cells (hyphens, pseudohyphens, and blastospores) and spores, indeed without enabling the exact species to be determined and specific therapeutic measures to be introduced.
Along with the microscopic detection, it is therefore indispensable to establish cultures for the determination of the exact species. A further diagnostic possibility, which nevertheless Up to now has not had the desired informational value, is the detection of Candida antigens in the serum of the patient. Although a high titer indeed argues for a systemic Candida infection, it still does not prove it, while a negative finding cannot rule out a systemic infection.
The development of further improved diagnostics for doubt-free assignment of a disturbance of health to the infections caused by representatives of the Candida family and of antimycotics for the treatment of infections caused by representatives of the Candida family is therefore urgently needed.